The United Kingdom is on the brink of a fracking bonanza after reporting this weekend revealed plans to begin ‘fast tracking’ new drilling plans. According to The Sunday Times in London, the UK government is set to unveil new guidance that “will strengthen the power of ministers to step in and wrest decisions from local…
A new report urges “extreme caution” in using seismic airguns to explore for fossil fuels underwater, saying it is “indisputable” that the practice has adverse impacts on Arctic marine life, especially whales. Seismic testing involves a vessel towing an array of airguns that continuously blast loud, low frequency sound waves down through the water column…
In a unanimous ruling hailed as “a major victory for human rights and corporate accountability,” the Canadian Supreme Court declared on Friday that a group of Ecuadorian villagers can pursue a multi-billion pollution lawsuit against oil giant Chevron in the province of Ontario. “The law has finally caught up with Chevron,” the nonprofit Amazon Watch…
Texas officials on Thursday made unannounced visits to Planned Parenthood clinics throughout the state to demand “thousands of pages” of documents in what the healthcare group and its advocates called a “politically motivated” series of raids. Agents from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s investigative arm turned up at Planned Parenthood chapters in Houston,…
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto (D) is launching a new ad for his 2017 mayoral campaign that targets President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE and…
Violently turned away from the Hungarian border, thousands of people fleeing war and poverty entered Croatia on Thursday, in pursuit of new routes to Western European countries where they are seeking refuge. In scenes that have become emblematic of what many are calling “fortress Europe,” police sought to block refugees from crossing the border. In…
Workers are decrying the demise of “one of the great inventions of our social history,” after the British government announced on Monday that it was completing the privatization of the UK’s state-run mail service by selling off its final 14 percent stake. In a press statement, the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills said that…
In the lead-up to the United Nations talks in Paris next month, parents and grandparents from around the world announced Tuesday that they are launching a global coalition to demand climate solutions for the people they love most: their children. “When I became a parent for first time, catastrophic climate change became a lot more…
A brutal attack by a male officer on a black, female high school student in Columbia, South Carolina on Monday has spurred widespread outrage after a number of cell phone videos of the incident went viral. In the videos, Spring Valley High School resource officer Ben Fields, who is white, is shown briefly reproaching the…
Reiterating his prior ruling which found the U.S. government’s surveillance of civilians’ telephone records to be unconstitutional—”Orwellian,” even—a federal judge on Monday ordered the National Security Agency to halt its bulk collection program. “This court simply cannot, and will not, allow the government to trump the Constitution merely because it suits the exigencies of the…